2018 No Buy

Last year, in an attempt to mitigate my impulse shopping, I embarked on my first beauty and fashion no-buy from January through mid-April. The results were life-changing.

First, if you are unfamiliar with the term, “no-buy” refers to a period of time when an individual commits to not purchasing non-essential goods in an attempt to curb impulsive shopping habits. In years past, I struggled with unhealthy shopping habits – i.e. I bought too many things on a whim or as retail therapy, so my no-buy was essentially a shopping detox. After completing my no buy, I am a more conscientious shopper – only buying items that I need or truly want, after careful consideration.

After finishing that no-buy, I thought I would never do another one due to my success in altering my shopping mindset. However, this year I am finding myself tempted to make purchases despite my inability to finish current products because I am bored with what I own. For example, when Benefit launched their revamped BADgal BANG! Volumizing Mascara, I found myself stalking blog after blog, shopping site after shopping site, fighting the urge to buy this mascara. (To note, I am currently using two open mascaras and have three unopened backups so I cannot justify buying another mascara.)

Additionally, despite the fact that I returned, donated, sold, decluttered or used up over 200 products (!!) last year, my collection this year is still quite large. In December 2017, I ended the year with 192 products vs 258 products I owned in December 2016. (Note: the December 2016 count did NOT include haircare whereas this year’s count does include haircare.) Also, I was gifted more than thirty items this past year – which contributed to the inflated size of my collection.

This year I plan to withhold from buying beauty products from April to June, with the potential to go beyond this time frame if it goes well. I want to drastically cut down on the number of items that I own, but if I keep “treating” myself I won’t get there. While I cannot control what others give to me, I can control what I choose to buy myself.

Moreover, finishing products this year is proving to be much harder than it was last year because I have far fewer deluxe size samples and travel-size products. Therefore, panning products likely won’t be enough for me to meet my goal of finishing 100 products in 2017.

Finally, the timeframe of this no-buy is significant to me, because it will be the first time that I will NOT have shopped during the Sephora Spring Sale. When I decided that I wanted to partake in another shopping fast, I thought about starting after this beloved sale period. However, in an effort to prove to myself how much I’ve grown, I will not be shopping during this year’s sale.

By the time you are reading this post, I will be twenty-five days into my no-buy. Woohoo!